Let's Talk About Kim's Butt Some More

It seems like whenever female celebrities take nude photos, privately or publicly, the world simply loses their minds and gets their cotton knickers all in a bunch. Female nudes are fabulous and feminist. However, I believe Kim Kardashian's recent nude photo shoot is about a little bit more than nudity and there are some aspects of the photos and the discussions around them that I don't agree with. So for my official contribution to the great Kim K debate, I offer what I think her nude photo shoot IS and IS NOT about.

1. It's NOT about motherhood

This has got to be the most ignorant argument that I've seen against Kim and her photos. People are freaking out because she's a mother and being a mother apparently means you automatically get stripped of all sexuality and never get to be viewed in a sexual way ever again. Yo, like how do you think she became a mother? This wild virgin-mother complex that we enforce on women is absurd. Mothers are supposed to be viewed as virginly. THAT IS NOT BIOLOGICALLY POSSIBLE YOU TWATS.

And for the people that argue this is going to be detrimental and a bad influence on North West, she is going to grow up and after the horrific experience of 6th grade sex ed, she will know that her mother in fact DOES have a vagina and HAS had intercourse and IS a sexual individual. SHOCKER. Wow maybe this child will grow up and not be weirdly taboo and shy about sex, maybe she will be confident with her sexuality and not shame other girls for doing the same.

This woman is celebrating her body which looks bitchin after having a child. Get over it.

2. It's NOT about money

There's a lot of Twitter shade being thrown that is defending Kim because she got paid to do this nude photo shoot...but in doing so, these Twitter-shade-throwers are also shaming other women that don't get paid for nudes. They are shaming women that send nudes to significant others, that take them for themselves, that have them on their personal phone for any personal reason and get personally violated when they're hacked...

On the flip side, there are people shaming Kim for "selling her body" and for the love of all that is holy, are we really equating nude photo shoots to slavery or serfdom? Kim has total autonomy over her body and this is what she chooses to do with it. It probably is empowering for her. No one gives a rat's ass if it's not empowering for you, as well.

No one SELLS their body. Not prostitutes. Not strippers. No one. Women sell their time, their abilities, their experience, their aesthetic. But there is never a moment that a women is selling her body...unless it's like black market organ stuff?

3. IS about body policing

Everyone needs to get over the seemingly ~*~radddical~*~ idea that women should have complete right over their own body. I'm not advocating for our rights to go streaking in children's parks in broad day light, but I will have my right to take nudes without my integrity or character questioned.

Society sexualizes every aspect of women in songs, advertising, movies, etc. but the second a woman does it to herself all bigoted-narrow-minded-shit hits the fan. A woman showing skin on her own or for herself is not the automatic green light to start judging her character or talent. Repeat after me: "Skin =/= character". And if you don't believe that then god have mercy on your soul because your are directly trying to police the way women expose or cover their bodies and directly stating that a woman's worth is always tied to her body and there is a special hell in the 9th circle of Dante's Inferno for you, my friend.

Let a lady be naked. It's just skin. It's just a booty. Stop trying to control what women do with their bodies because it makes your conservative pathetic little mind uncomfortable.

4. IS about race

So yes, one of Kim's photos was recycled from a photo in a book titled "Jungle Fever" and reeks of a history of turning black women into sexual objects, which is all very problematic and makes everyone uncomfortable.

But check it out, we have 2 Live Crew and Sir Mix-a-Lot rapping about large butts on black women in the very early 90s. The social acceptance and sexual praise for large butts came straight from rap culture and was all in reference to black women. So Kim is perpetuating the fetishization of black women and reducing black women to body parts (specifically the booty) much like rappers do. Also, one could argue that it's slight cultural appropriation because Kim is Armenian American with no black heritage.

So cool, a not-black-woman does a border-line racist photo shoot that highlights her majestic ass. Fine. But what happens when ACTUAL black women do this? Remember Nicki Minaj's Anaconda single cover? Nicki, who is Afro-Trinidadian, who is choosing to have control over how her body and booty is viewed, got shamed and called trashy.  Whereas, when Kim poses with quirky faces so it's all fun and cute rather than shamed for being "trashy". So yeah, this is about race.

So next time you see some consenting nudes in the web-o-sphere, if it's not racist, fucking praise that ish! Nothing else. Just say "Glory hallelujah here's another confident woman who is comfortable in her body and with her sexuality and even if I'm not super comfortable in le nude, I respect her for doing her, in Jesus name, amen!"

WhOo0oAaaHh It's The Wild World of Online Social Activism

The internet is a wild place that can literally consume all your time, your life, and the quality of your vision, not that I know from personal experience or anything....But the internet is also a place where niche or oppressed communities can come together to find support, share ideas, and express themselves. ALSO the internet is a super rad place where language is constantly changing, being created, and being re-appropriated.

A lot of people may be against identities and labels thinking that they are exclusionary or get too specific. However, we must ALWAYS give people the right to self-identify however they choose. This means that we must ALWAYS allow new identities and labels to be created by and for certain groups. If you are not a part of that group or identity, then you have no say as to whether their identity is legitimate or not.

So, as an internet junkie and flaming feminist with liberal and sapphic tendencies, I am married to the game of online social activism. Here are a few terms I've learned during my late night internet binges. This might not be the best place to start if you are a newly self identified feminist or social activist, but for those that are well versed or just want to learn more about underrepresented groups, I'd suggest exploring some of these terms further!

General Terms

TERF: Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist
SWERF: Sex Worker-Exclusionary Radical Feminist
MRA: Men's Rights Activist
SJW: Social Justice Warrior
MSWF: Mainstream White Feminist
Weaponized femininity: a form of feminism that turns misandry into an elaborate joke, especially online. The aesthetic is stereotypically feminine, i.e. glitter, hearts, pink, etc., but expresses a love for misandry and male tears.

Diarchy: refers to a society that operates on a system of a gender dichotomy that is based on mutuality.
Kyriarchy: moving away from just the patriarchy, this term refers to a system that keeps all intersecting oppressions in place, not just sexism. Coined by Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenze.
Mansplaining: when a man assumes he knows more on any given topic than a woman and proceeds to over explain it to her in extremely simplified terms.

Cis-splaining: refers to a cisgender individual over simplifying and talking down to individuals not within the gender binary. Often talks over trans individuals and derails conversations about the trans community to focus on cis privilege.
Whorephobia: a term often used to describe anti-porn and anti-sex worker feminists. These radical feminists are often against the female porn stars or sex workers because they consider them "whores" and not the actual industries themselves.

Sizeism: a form of oppression that discriminates against fat (which is a term now being re-appropriated by the community) individuals by viewing them as lazy, unhealthy, unattractive, fetishized, etc.
PUA: Pick Up Artist, generally refers to men that use degrading and sexually abusive techniques to "woo" women.
FPUA: Female Pick Up Artist, usually women don't use this label as an identifier for themselves, but these women help teach other women the art of seduction rather than listing things they shouldn't do when trying to attract a man.
negging: undermining a woman's self confidence so that she might be more vulnerable and receptive of a man's sexual advances.

Racism

Afrofuturism: a literary and aesthetic movement that blends Afrocentricity, science fiction, and the history of oppression of individuals of color by addressing concerns of the African Diaspora through a science fiction lens.
AAVE: African American Vernacular English
Misogynoir: a form of misogyny that specifically oppresses women of color, especially African American women. This is done by white males and females as well as, black men.

Ableism

Neurotypical: an individual that does not suffer from/has not been diagnosed or self diagnosed a mental or personality disorder.
Neurodivergent: an individual that does suffer from a mental or personality disorder. The concept of self diagnosing is becoming more accepted and supported in online communities.
Allistics: An individual who is not autistic. Often belittles or discredits individuals who self diagnose themselves with autism or Asperger syndrome.

Sexuality & Gender

Bihet: a bisexual in a heterosexual relationship.
Cishet: a term for a heterosexual cisgender individual.
Sapiosexual: a person who finds intelligence to be the most sexually attractive feature of a person.
Demisexual: a person who does not experience sexual attraction to another person until they have formed a emotional or romantic connection with them.
Cupiosexual: a person who desires a sexual relationship but feels no sexual attraction to anyone.
Skoliosexual: a person who experiences sexual attraction to non-binary identified individuals.
Ace: another way of saying asexual, which is a person who is not sexually attracted to others and/or doesn't desire sexual activity in or outside of a relationship.

Gray-Ace/Grace: someone that doesn't identify as sexual or asexual but somewhere inbetween.
Aro: another way of saying aromantic, which is a person who is not romantically attracted to others.
Allo Ace: a term in the ace/asexual community to describe someone who is non-asexual.
Aro Ace: a combination of aromantic and asexual.
Demi Ace: a combination of demiromantic (experience a romantic attraction after an emotional connection has been formed) and asexual. Also sometimes used as a synonym for demisexual.
Truscum: transmedicalists that follow the medical definition of transsexualism - that it is a medical condition and an individual needs sex dysphoria to be trans.
Tucute/Transtrender: terms used for those who support trans people but often exclude transmen, truscum, or trans individuals with mental disorders.

Crossdreamer: individuals that dream about being the other sex and it is often part of their sexual fantasies.
Girlfag: a female who is attracted to gay, bisexual, and/or transmen and who may feels as though they are a gay male within a female body.
Guydyke: a man, generally cisgender and heterosexual, who is attracted to or wants to have relationships with lesbians. The term is used to describe a man who fetishes lesbians.
Autogynephilia: describes a sexuality in which a person is sexual aroused by the idea of themselves being the opposite sex. Distinguished from transgender or transsexual.

Remember that these are legitimate terms that online groups have created for themselves and the oppression they face. Just because you might not understand them or think they don't exist, does not mean that they aren't very real for certain people. Expand your vocab, be accepting of underrepresented groups, let people explore and create their own identities, sell your soul and your 20/20 vision to the interweb for the sake of knowledge!!!